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The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy programme, in partnership with the Christian Council of Nigeria (CCN), hosted a PEPFAR-UNAIDS consultation on HIV treatment adherence in Lagos, Nigeria, in April.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical HIV and AIDS Initiatives and Advocacy programme will hold workshops in April 2021 on HIV treatment adherence in Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

A three-day workshop facilitated in Jos, Nigeria by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in partnership with the Christian Council of Nigeria trained religious leaders, humanitarian workers and government officials on how to provide support for migrants who are vulnerable to HIV.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) will co-host a workshop on “Addressing Risks and Vulnerability to HIV for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced People” from 1-5 March in Jos, Nigeria.

The WCC-EHAIA programme organized a workshop on 27-29 November during which young people in Nigeria could highlight positive masculinity and femininity.

Dr Erlinda N. Senturias, from the Philippines, gives thanks that WCC has created safe spaces for the churches to talk about HIV and AIDS. She asks that the ecumenical movement continue to be a beacon of support for this ongoing journey of health and healing.

Interfaith consultation on positive masculinities and femininities with adolescents and young people in Abuja, Nigeria brought together more than fifty religious leaders, theologians, people living with HIV, adolescents and young people, teachers, health professionals, media persons and government officials for frank conversation.

Fifty adolescents, young people, teachers, theologians, health professionals, people living with HIV and religious leaders met in Abuja from 22-26 May to discuss positive masculinities and femininities in faith communities.

At the WCC 10th Assembly in 2013, 19-year-old Shyreen Mvula captivated hundreds of people when she told her courageous story about how being born HIV-positive unfolded into a lifetime of struggling for justice.

Rev. Ikechukwu Anaga remembers when people didn’t know about “Thursdays in Black,” the global movement resisting attitudes and practices that permit rape and violence. But his community of Aba, in Abia State, Nigeria, was seeing firsthand an increase in gender-based violence and rape. When Anaga helped others in his community make a firm decision to do something about it, the zeal and passion for Thursdays in Black rose.

As Rev. Pauline Wanjiru Njiru preached on 18 June at the Malawi United Methodist Church in Blantyre, she acknowledged that parenting adolescents is not an easy task.

“Before being identified as a person with disability, you are a woman with the same rights,” said Hellen Anurika Udoye Beyioku-Alase, a young woman with a disability. She was among some 70 women who gathered at the Swiss International Hotel in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on 22-23 June around the theme “Women with Disabilities, Sexual Reproductive Health and HIV.”

Four short videos sharing challenges and examples of how churches and church leaders can make a profound difference in global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat are now available for individual inspiration and group discussion.

Thirty-five years into the response to HIV and AIDS, it remains a disease that not only thrives on, but exploits the lines of exclusion and inequality in society. In the Philippines, where there has been an alarming increase in people testing positive for HIV, the country’s National Council of Churches recognized that more than words were needed. While dialogue and debate were important, they needed to translate into action, given the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor in Filipino society, and a faith-based and societal milieu still dominated by a sex-negative theology.

Churches are engaged at the grassroots level throughout the world in the response to HIV and AIDS, but the struggle against the disease and those stigmatized for being HIV positive needs to continue, say church leaders.

As participants in a workshop on HIV offered their personal reflections, they shared how their hearts have been deepened and changed by a dialogue facilitated by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).

“I came here to know the difference between HIV and AIDS, and to distinguish the role of women, especially women pastors, in educating, empowering, and enlightening people in her flock about their view on HIV,” said Rev. Mary Ann Kadile, a pastor from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. She traveled from Mindanao to San Pablo City, Laguna to participate in a workshop on HIV led by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

“Disability does not mean inability! Human rights for all! Equality and access to good health care! Leave no one behind!” Slogans were plentiful at the 18th International Conference on AIDS and STIs. Some participants felt that the conference venue sadly belied these clarion calls as it was ill-equipped to handle the mobility and access needs of persons with disabilities.